Derby day still the big one

Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal fans are mercifully thin on the ground where I work - there is a sprinkling, but armchair fans who probably have old Blackburn replica shirts lurking in the back of their wardrobes don't count.

Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal fans are mercifully thin on the ground where I work - there is a sprinkling, but armchair fans who probably have old Blackburn replica shirts lurking in the back of their wardrobes don't count.

So the most important games of the season on a personal level have always been - and always will be - those against City. And the day after a derby match when we've won is the only day of the year when I actually look forward to going into work so I can lord it over my wailing Blue colleagues.

Of course City have won only a quarter of all the previous derbies so the stattos would say we won't lose. And with our strikers finally coming into some decent goalscoring form, realistically we should score at least once. I can’t see City scoring twice against a mean-looking defence that has yet to concede a goal this season.

So everything on paper is pointing to another Reds win - or at the very least a draw. And yet, there’s a nagging feeling somewhere inside that City are properly getting their act together and could spring an upset.

It’s still early days for Pearce but he is clearly a much more suitable manager than Keegan for a team that is so cash-strapped, and going unbeaten for the best part of six months is an achievement on a par with what Allardyce is doing up in Bolton and Curbishley’s achievements at Charlton.

These sorts of hard-grafting teams are never going to be challenging for a Champions League spot, but they’re definitely difficult to break down, as we have proved in the past.

And the fact that so many of our players have been flying around the globe on international duty, while City’s have been lounging around resting up and planning tactics for their ‘cup final’, may have a bearing on the result.

But enough of this pessimism - last season’s results proved we have got the measure of the Blues, no matter how much they raise their game and how tired our star players might be.